Tired and ReTired

As the days turned into hours counting down to Tim's retirement, farming life fought to take center-stage over the excitement of retiring on Friday, January 9.

Back in May and June of 2025, Tim and I were very excited to buy a new bull named Emperor and a new heifer named Tomiko, both world class genetics. We were surprised and excited to learn that Tomiko was bred before we got her, with the baby expected in January. An ultrasound told us it was a girl, due around January 16.

On Thursday, January 8, in the early morning hours, our two healers, Pepper and Peaches were barking behind our house. It was barely daybreak and I could see they were chasing Tomiko and Emperor.

Story within a story... As you may recall, Pepper and Peaches were dumped and we decided to keep them. Then we realized they were chicken killers. They weren't just killing chickens, but they were eating our chickens. That brought about a change in the way we raise chickens. We now have a smaller flock and we keep them in a very large fenced in chicken-run to protect them from the dogs. But then the dogs started killing our guineas. So we bought training collars. I caught them red-handed killing guineas and pressed that button, but the collars did not work. So I returned those collars and bought another brand with intention to use them only if I caught them in the act, and it was absolutely necessary. We love our dogs and we struggled with keeping them, but chose to do everything we could to make that happen.

And in this case, I was thankful to have those collars.

Pepper & Peaches running Tomiko

Back to the story... I saw the dogs chasing Tomiko and Emperor in the pen behind our house, so I grabbed the controllers and cringed as I tapped the shock button. Yipe - Yipe - the dogs stopped and it worked like a charm. So after a while I went to work.

That evening Tim came home and said "Grab your camera! Tomiko has a new baby!" What a beautiful little heifer, born 8 days early. In fact, when we looked at the cameras, she was born and up and walking within one hour of being chased by the dogs. She was a healthy little heifer and we are so grateful that we did not lose her.

Tomiko's Miss Steak - our new baby wagyu calf

Her name is "Tomiko's Miss Steak"

Tomiko was a little young to be bred already, and it was certainly not intended. So it seems perfectly fitting that Tomiko, a top 5% wagyu's heifer should be named "Tomiko's Miss Steak." She will get to stay with us since our new bull is not her daddy! We expect her offspring to provide beautiful steaks in about five years.

While I was out with camera taking pictures of Miss Steak, Tim was giving a bale of hay to the herd. While doing so, he saw one of our momma cows had died because she got stuck in the mud by the tank. The drought is so bad and the waters have all gone down, so it leaves the herd no choice but to walk in deep mud to get a drink of water. Sometimes they just can't get out of the mud. And even if you could pull them out, it's hard to save them. Often our joys and sorrows are intermingled.

We were happy to have a new baby and sad to lose one of our young mommas. The only way to never lose anything is to never have anything, so we have grown to accept the good and the bad.

The cost to have someone clean out a tank is very expensive and we just had that done at our place in Warda a few months ago. There is no rain in sight, and that tank is still dry. I don't know what we will do about the muddy tanks at home.

Later that evening, Tim had a church council meeting and I was home. I moved Peaches and Pepper into the back yard for precautionary measures, although they seemed to learn their lesson about chasing cows that we didn't ask them to "work."

It was dark and I heard them both barking ferociously, so I went outside with a flashlight to see what was happening. I was so happy to see they had caught a mouse in the yard! I praised them for their efforts. I even took a picture of Pepper with her prize.

Pepper caught a mouse.

No more than I went inside they started barking again, this time towards the front of the house. To my shock, I heard the cry of a baby calf and sure enough, there was a newborn heifer looking up at me. My thought was "oh no!!!!" "How could Tomiko's Miss Steak get out of the pen?" I opened the side gate and walked behind it, hoping it would go through the front yard gate so that I could return it to Tomiko. But that silly baby darted away from me at the last minute and ran towards the brush. I managed to get around it and stood between it and certain death in the woods where coyotes howl nightly.

There I was at home alone, and Tim was in a meeting. I called Whitney and Dustin explaining where I was located in hopes they would come over and help me. But then Tim called to say he was on his way home. Thankfully he got there quickly and caught the baby. We placed it in our new cattle trailer and then went to check on Tomiko and her baby.

To our joy, Tomiko's Miss Steak was with her momma and they were both doing well. So the mystery question was "Who did this baby belong to?"

Tim's ReTireMent Day!

Friday morning came early and it was Tim's retirement day. His party was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. By 7:30 a.m. , we were already back from town with milk replacer and that baby took a bottle like a champ.

Would Tim become a "Stay-at-home Mom"?

Tim got to work and the party went on as planned. It was so nice. The whole staff of a hundred people joined Tim with gifts and cake and lots of wonderful stories and speeches. Tim felt so honored and we were all filled with emotion.

That afternoon, we had some time to inspect the herd and discovered two more babies, making four total, 3 girls and one boy born on January 8 & 9 - So many blessings! We are pretty sure that the momma we found in the mud is the mother of the orphan calf.

On Saturday morning, we fed the baby at 5 a.m. so that we could leave for a volleyball tournament around 6:30 a.m. Needless to say we were tired, hence the name of this blog post "Tired and ReTired."

On Sunday after church, we were able to tag one of the herd baby heifers but we had a little trouble catching the baby bull calf. Peaches was there and her intuitions were spot on. She turned that calf away from running off and we were able to band (castrate) and tag him. Peaches did a great job and we could not have done it without her. These young heelers need guidance and with Tim being home, they will have someone with them at all times training them to be the cow dogs they were born to be. The main use for the collars is the recall button which we use to teach Peaches and Pepper to come back when called. It also has a vibrate button to get their attention when the sound alone does not work. The shock feature will only be used to save another animal from distress or death. We hope we never have to use it.

Tired No "Stay-At-Home Mom"

Raising a bottle baby is demanding work, requiring three feedings per day. And since our weekends are spent traveling to tournaments for volleyball, basketball and soon baseball, we knew we had to sell the baby. So we took her to the auction barn on Monday. Apparently there is a good market for bottle babies and someone will have a sweet little baby following them around.

Tim's First Day At Home Alone was Tuesday - It's Always Something

On the first day of Tim retired and home without someone there, the neighbors cow and calf were seen in our pasture. Turns out the creek crossing needed attention. This is the first time Tim didn't have to take vacation to fix the problem.

And now we wonder what today will bring. We'll let you know in the next blog post!